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PentaGuard planned to attack medical facilities with ransomware.
Romanian law enforcement officers thwarted the activity of the cybercriminal group PentaGuard, which was preparing to launch attacks on Romanian hospitals using extortionate software.
Four hackers were arrested, and searches were conducted at their place of residence (at three addresses in Romania and one address in Moldova). As reportedThe Office of the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism of Romania (Direcția de Investigare a Infracțiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată și Terorism, DIICOT), hackers had various malicious programs at their disposal, including remote access trojans, ransomware, as well as tools for website deface and SQL -injection.
The investigation revealed that cybercriminals planned to attack the hospitals with the help of ransomware. The attackers intended to send phishing emails on the subject of COVID-19 to medical institutions and use them to infect the networks with ransomware, encrypt files, and demand a ransom for recovery. According to the Romanian media, in this way the cybercriminals wanted to express their protest against the quarantine measures taken by the Romanian government.
PentaGuard has been around since 2000. In January 2001, the group carried out a massive deface of the sites of the British and Australian governments. Over the past few years, PentaGuard has not conducted any face-down campaigns, but has remained active in hacker forums. In January 2020, the group resumed deface attacks.
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Romanian law enforcement officers thwarted the activity of the cybercriminal group PentaGuard, which was preparing to launch attacks on Romanian hospitals using extortionate software.
Four hackers were arrested, and searches were conducted at their place of residence (at three addresses in Romania and one address in Moldova). As reportedThe Office of the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism of Romania (Direcția de Investigare a Infracțiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată și Terorism, DIICOT), hackers had various malicious programs at their disposal, including remote access trojans, ransomware, as well as tools for website deface and SQL -injection.
The investigation revealed that cybercriminals planned to attack the hospitals with the help of ransomware. The attackers intended to send phishing emails on the subject of COVID-19 to medical institutions and use them to infect the networks with ransomware, encrypt files, and demand a ransom for recovery. According to the Romanian media, in this way the cybercriminals wanted to express their protest against the quarantine measures taken by the Romanian government.
PentaGuard has been around since 2000. In January 2001, the group carried out a massive deface of the sites of the British and Australian governments. Over the past few years, PentaGuard has not conducted any face-down campaigns, but has remained active in hacker forums. In January 2020, the group resumed deface attacks.
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